Cole Brown #25, Joshua Haynes(behind Brown #52) Joseph Natal #20 and River Haynes #17
surround a John Paul II ball carrier on Friday. St. Paul won the game 12-8 to improve
to 2-1 in district play.
[ NOTE: click on photo to enlarge ]

photo by Lori Raabe

Winning a close game can be good for the character of a football team.

The Shiner St. Paul Cardinals (4-3, 2-1) had their ups and downs but came away with a 12-8 win
over Schertz John Paul II Friday night ( October 7, 2016 ) at Comanche Stadium.

"We actually needed to win a game like this where it was close," St. Paul head coach Jake
Wachsmuth said. We did some things wrong. We needed to play and win a game where we had to
battle, and it looked like at times things were not going our way and we needed to fight back."

The Cardinals dealt with adversity better as the game went on. "We went from not very intense
to more intense," Wachsmuth said.

"Turnovers are still an issue and we are not executing on offense the way I would like."

The Cardinals struggled to move the football on the game's opening drive and John Paul II took
over at the Cardinal 34 after St. Paul was unable to convert a fourth-and-short. On the third
play, Sammy LaRue took a handoff on the jet sweep and got to the Cardinal 21. Several plays
later, quarterback Hunter Albrecht had an 8-yard touchdown pass to Antonio Salazar. The
two-point conversion was no good and the Guardians held a 6-0 lead.

The Cardinals managed to get inside the John Paul II 10 after some hard-nosed running by
Tre'Zell Jenkins-Perry and a 40-yard completion from quarterback Austin Barton to Ryan Bell.
However, St. Paul was unable to capitalize as John Paul II recovered a fumble inside its own
end zone.

The teams traded punts until the Guardians had fourth down at their 13 and had to punt into a
good wind. The kick was a net 10 yards and St. Paul had good fi eld position at the plus- 23.
Barton had a 13-yard run to the 6 on a second-and-6 play. Two plays later, he followed behind
the push of his offensive line and scored from 3 yards.

The extra point was blocked and John Paul II's Matthew Sullivan returned it for two points a
slim 8-6 Guardians lead.

John Paul II drove the ball past the 50 on the next drive but it ended as a halfback pass by
Quentin Rhoder was intercepted by River Haynes.

John Paul II then turned around and got a turnover by its defense but did not move the ball far
as time in the first half expired.

After forcing the Guardians to punt from deep inside their own half to start the third quarter,
St. Paul struck pay dirt with a four-play 49-yard drive that was concluded with a 5-yard
touchdown rush by Joseph Natal. The two-point pass fell short, leaving the Cardinals ahead 12-8
with 7:30 left in the third.

The defenses took over as St. Paul got a turnover on the next series on the fumble recovery by
Alex Hull but could not move the ball against the John Paul II defense.

St. Paul got another break later as John Paul II had another short punt, this one a 1-yard
kick. The Cardinals were stopped on fourth down.

The Guardians had one last attempt to get the win as they had the ball at the Cardinal 49 with
4:46 left but a short 2-yard run was followed by three straight incomplete passes, allowing St.
Paul to run out the remaining time and breath a sigh of relief.